In a Yellow Wood
by rubycaspar
Summary: An anomaly to another reality opens in the ARC, and through it come an alternate team - bruised, battered, and on the run from future predators. The team rally round to help them, and have to face up to some truths about their own lives as they see the roads not taken. Becker/Jess, Connor/Abby, Matt/Emily
1. Chapter 1

I am so glad to finally be writing this story. I had the idea for this last January – that's _eighteen months ago_ – but have held off starting it because it needed a lot of planning out. Then I held off because I didn't want to have more than one Primeval WIP at a time, and Just Pretend turned into such a beast. I'd planned to do this as a Big Bang, but I didn't have the time. But, finally, here it is.

I'm not sure yet how long it will be – it's planned out quite thoroughly, but I don't know how many chapters it will shake out to. I'll be updating as often as I can but… well, it's me. However, I am obsessed with this story, so now I've started writing it I might run through it really quickly as I sometimes do with WIPs – I wrote this chapter in one sitting in a couple of hours, so you never know.

This is going to be a complicated one, with lots of different characters and multiple pairings, which is why I haven't put any characters on the story information – unlike basically all my other stories, it's not just Becker/Jess – though that will be a big part. Obviously.

The title is from Robert Frost's poem 'The road not taken'.

You know what, I'm just gonna shut up and let you start reading. Enjoy!

**In A Yellow Wood **– chapter one

It was early in the morning. Well, not _early _early, and certainly not early to Jess – she'd already been in the ARC for an hour, running system checks and going through paperwork. She liked to get a good start on things when the Hub was quiet. It was _early in the working day_, the time that the rest of the alpha team were just getting to work and the ARC-based scientists and doctors and what have you were also arriving.

Not to put too fine a point on it, it was 8.52am.

All was still quiet, and Jess was alone in the Hub, sipping her newly-made second coffee of the day and checking a mission report filed by Becker the day before. It was flawless, of course, and if there weren't many, _many _other reasons for her to already think he was frustratingly perfect, the way his mission reports never created any additional work for her would have been enough.

Jess allowed herself to zone out slightly, imagining the look on Becker's face if she ever told him any of that, but she was brought back to the present by two things happening.

One, a sudden almost blinding light flashed into being to the right of where she was sitting.

Two, the anomaly alert started blaring.

The two events weren't unrelated.

Jess' heart leapt into her throat at the sight of the anomaly, open, dazzling, and _ten feet from where she was sitting_. Fear gripped her, she had to move – she was unarmed, and alone, and there was no knowing what might come through. She knew that there would be people hurrying up to her right now from all parts of the ARC, to find out where the anomaly was and be sent out into the field. Comforting though that thought was, she decided that she could do with them getting here quicker, and making sure they had EMDs.

Jess jumped out of her chair, ready to run, but stayed to tap a command into the ADD with slightly shaky hands – an ARC-wide broadcast.

"Jess to all personnel," she announced, trying to keep her voice steady. "Code Blue. An anomaly has appeared in the Hub. Repeat, anomaly is in the ARC, all personnel this is a Code Blue. This is not a drill."

Code Blue meant lock your doors and stay behind them until given the all clear, so at least the civilian personnel would be safe.

_Apart from me_. Jess shook her head to clear that thought and started to back away from her desk and from the anomaly, her eyes fixed on the shimmering light in front of her, watching for anything about to come through. She frowned, looking at it – it seemed different to other anomalies she'd seen, like it had almost a purple tinge to it.

But an anomaly was an anomaly, and just because it looked a bit purple didn't mean she shouldn't be backing out of there as quickly as possible.

"Jess!"

The voice was a little way away, still a couple of corridors from the sound of it, but it was recognisable and Jess couldn't help but sag a little with relief. She started moving faster, towards the door and the sound of Becker's voice.

He skidded into the room a few seconds later, breathing heavily and still wearing his civilian clothes. From the looks of it he'd run all the way there from the locker rooms the second he'd arrived at the ARC – he didn't have a radio, he didn't have an EMD… all he had was a panicked look on his face which he immediately turned on Jess.

Despite the situation, Jess couldn't help but feel gratified he was so worried about her… and if anyone was looking for a reason that she needed therapy, there it was.

"Jess, get out of here," Becker said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door.

"You too, you're not armed," Jess said immediately.

"I –" Whatever Becker was planning on saying, he was cut off by a rippling sound from the anomaly, accompanied by a shift in the way the light of the anomaly was bouncing off the walls. His grip on Jess' hand tightened and they both looked round at the anomaly as something came through.

No, not something… someone. A man. A man they both recognised.

"_Danny_?" Jess and Becker both said at the same time.

Danny looked incredibly relieved to see them, and Jess was just starting to grin at this unexpectedly good turn of events when he held up a hand. "Hang on a sec," he said, before turning round and diving back through the anomaly.

Jess frowned, not only at him disappearing again but at what she'd noticed in his other hand as he did so.

"Erm…" she managed to say, before five or six soldiers darted into the room, armed to the teeth with EMDs and carrying a locking device.

Becker immediately let go of Jess' hand. She folded her arms, ignoring the tingling in her fingers, and stared hard at the anomaly.

Becker took an EMD from one of his men. "Set up the locking device but wait for my signal before locking the anomaly," he told the man with device.

"That didn't look like Danny," Jess said suddenly.

Becker frowned at her. "Yes it did," he said.

"No, I mean… it didn't look like the Danny I met last year," Jess clarified. "He didn't look like he was lost in the wilderness. And he was holding a 9mm."

Becker stared at her for a moment, and Jess knew he'd noticed the differences too, just hadn't thought anything of it until she brought it up.

"What's that about Danny?"

It was Connor – he'd just arrived in the Hub, Matt on his heels.

"Why isn't that thing locked yet?" Matt demanded.

"Danny just came through the anomaly," Becker told them. "He told us to hang on and then went back through."

Connor's face lit up. "Danny's back?" He exclaimed. His grin was practically splitting his face. He spun around to yell through the door of the Hub and down the corridor. "Abby! Danny's back!"

Jess wanted to share Connor's exuberance, but she wasn't so sure. She opened her mouth to say so, but before she could the anomaly rippled again and Danny stepped back through. Connor stepped through right behind him.

Half a dozen EMDs, including Becker's, went up and pointed straight at the two of them. Jess' jaw dropped, her eyes darting between the Connor who had just come through the anomaly and the one standing by the doorway, who was gaping at his other self in shock and confusion.

Danny immediately put his hands up, a 9mm pistol loose in his right hand. As Jess had thought before he looked remarkably clean shaven and well-groomed for a man supposedly lost in prehistoric times. "Don't shoot," he said. "We can explain."

"Explain quickly," Becker said tensely. "Are you from the future or what?"

"Not quite," Danny said.

Connor – the other Connor… the just-came-through-an-anomaly Connor – stepped up next to Danny, his hands also in the air. "We're not from the future, or the past," he said. "We're from an alternate reality."

He was saying this straight to Connor, as though he would be the one to understand… which, Jess reasoned, was probably right. She looked at Connor and saw that he was no longer gaping, though the shock hadn't disappeared.

"What the _hell_?"

Abby had arrived on the scene, and Connor looked incredibly relieved to see her. She was staring at the Other Connor, who was looking her over with a slight frown. Jess took the opportunity to give him a once over – it was clearly Connor, but with differences. His hair was much shorter for a start, making him look years younger. And he was wearing a scarf and fingerless gloves and a waistcoat and generally all other kinds of accessories that Jess never saw their Connor wearing.

She'd watched enough science fiction shows to know the basics of alternate realities… and looking at him, she had no trouble believing that the man in front of her was an alternate version of Connor Temple.

The anomaly rippled yet again, and the alternate Danny and Connor scrambled to the side as two more people stumbled through – an alternate Abby (also with short hair, Jess noted), along with a woman that Jess had never met but had no trouble recognising… Sarah Page. Jess only had enough time to glance at Becker, Connor and Abby to see the shock register on their faces, before another person ran through at top speed.

This person was Nick Cutter.

The Other Cutter didn't seem fazed by the fact that there were a lot of guns pointed at him, or that nearly everyone in the room was staring at him in shock. He focused his attention on the solder crouching next to the locking device.

"Hold it open!" He yelled.

"Where's Becker?" Connor – the Other Connor – asked him.

"Where's JP?" The Other Sarah demanded.

"Becker went back for her," Other Cutter said, leaning forward and resting his hands on his knees, trying to get his breath back. He looked up then, straight at Jess and then at Becker standing next to her with an EMD still pointed at his head. He quirked an eyebrow but didn't say anything else.

All of the other new arrivals through the anomaly were staring back at the shimmering light, and Jess found herself staring too, willing the Other Becker to come through. From the urgent way they were speaking, their panicked looks, haggard appearance and the blood trickling down Other Cutter's arm, Jess assumed that there was something dangerous on the other side of that anomaly, something they were running from… and she hated the thought of Becker being in danger, even if it wasn't _her _Becker.

Matt had clearly reached the same conclusion as Jess, because he stepped forward. "Okay, so let's say we believe you and you're from an alternate reality," he said. "What are you doing here? What are you running from?"

The Others, as Jess was thinking of them in her head, stared at Matt with mingled looks of curiosity and annoyance. It occurred to Jess that none of them had mentioned an alternate version of Matt… or her.

"Our ARC's been overrun by future predators," Danny said after a moment.

Jess froze. _Future predators_. Suddenly all she could see was blood, and she felt her own blood run cold. Becker moved to the side so that he was standing half in front of her, his grip tightening on the EMD in his hands. Jess should probably feel slighted by his obvious protectiveness, but she didn't – she just tightened her folded arms, hoping no one saw her hands shaking.

"How many?" Becker demanded. "Are any likely to come through?"

"About two dozen as far as we could tell," Other Cutter answered him. "And the room was secure, but we were trapped and it wasn't going to _stay_ secure."

"Becker and JP were covering us as we fell back," the other Connor said, stepping up next to Cutter.

"Where are they?" Becker said.

"They're coming," Other Cutter said firmly.

Becker turned his head to look at Matt. Jess couldn't see Becker's face, but she could see the look Matt was giving him in return, and she knew that they both wanted to close the anomaly, right now, before any of those things had a chance to come through. Part of her, the part that saw claws and teeth and Lester's blood in her dreams in the middle of the night, agreed with them… but it was Becker who was still to come through, who was in danger. They needed to keep it open for him.

"One minute," Matt said eventually. The Others scowled at him, but he just lifted his chin defiantly and stared them all down. They all turned to look at the anomaly again. Becker moved forward, closer to the anomaly, his EMD trained on the shimmering light.

_Come on, Becker_, Jess thought.

They didn't have to wait long. It was probably about ten seconds of silence before the anomaly rippled once more, and another Becker appeared, stumbling backwards through the light and firing a machine gun one-handed. The sudden sound made Jess jump out of her skin, but the sight of the Other Becker was enough to make her almost faint.

She could see he had blood on him even just looking at him from behind. He came through backwards, firing his gun and dragging something after him, stumbling and swearing. He didn't even glance behind him at the rest of them. "CLOSE IT RIGHT NOW!" He yelled to the room at large, letting go of the thing he was dragging and dropping to one knee with his machine gun raised and trained on the anomaly.

"Do it!" Becker – her Becker – yelled. He hurried forward and stood right behind his counterpart, with his gun raised as well. The soldier with the locking device jammed his finger down on the button straight away, but it didn't have the instantaneous effect it usually did. The beam of light hit the anomaly, and it expanded slightly, wavering, before finally collapsing into a tight ball.

It was a delay of only a second or so, but it was enough.

A future predator burst through the light of the collapsing anomaly. It was already bleeding from several places, so clearly the Other Becker's machine gun fire had done some good. It was moving slightly slower because of it, and clearly not expecting to face close range fire from both a machine gun and an EMD the second it came through. Both Beckers opened fire immediately, and the predator collapsed to the ground, letting out a sound between a shriek and snarl that made Jess' toes curl.

There was a moment's silence. It was Becker that broke it. He lowered his EMD – practically _dropped it _was more like it, and even from behind she could sense his distress. "Oh my god!" He exclaimed.

There were more gasps and exclamations of shock from the Others, who were still crowded in front of the anomaly, but Jess didn't know what had them all so worried – Becker was in her way and she couldn't see.

Becker was moving though – he actually did drop his EMD to the floor, something that really shocked Jess, and then started to struggle out of his shirt. Jess' eyes widened, unsure what the hell was happening, but her attention was drawn to the Other Becker, who was talking in a low, extremely worried tone.

"Hey – _hey_! Look at me. You're safe now. Don't – damn it – don't you dare close your eyes," he said. He'd also dropped his gun to the floor, and was kneeling down.

Jess realised that the thing he'd dragged through the anomaly was a _person_, and clearly they were injured. Jess snapped out of her shock and turned her earpiece on – she was still tapped into citywide. "Medical team to the Hub," she said. "We are now at Code Green, Hub out of limits to all non-essential personnel. Medical team to the Hub."

The message sent, Jess forced herself to walk forward to see what was happening.

Becker had got his shirt off and knelt down next to his counterpart, and with him out of the way Jess finally got a look at the person on the floor.

It was her.

Jess froze again, barely able to believe her eyes. She figured she shouldn't be so shocked to see another of her since there was another of practically everyone, but none of them had mentioned her. They'd said Becker'd gone back for someone – they didn't say he'd gone back for _her_.

_He went back for JP…_ Jess'eyes widened. _JP_. JP was her.

"JP – JESS!" The Other Becker was still talking to her. He was cradling the back of her head with one hand and trying to press down on her leg with the other. "Jess you have to stay awake – look at me Parker, that's an order!"

It was the desperation in his voice that got Jess moving again. She hurried forward. "Medical team is on its way," she said, if only to let him know that help was coming.

Neither of the Beckers paid her any attention. Becker – her Becker – was busy tying his shirt around Other Jess' leg. A couple more steps allowed Jess to see what was wrong – there was a deep gash in Other Jess thigh, and blood was pumping from it to a steady beat… her heartbeat. The predator had obviously got her artery. The blood was spreading out across the cement floor – both the Beckers were kneeling in a puddle of it at this point. Jess looked back up at her counterpart's face – she was white as a sheet, and though Other Becker was still talking to her, her eyes slipped closed and stayed closed.

"Jess! Jess _wake up_!" Other Becker shook her shoulder with his free hand, and even smacked her cheek… all that achieved was a bloody smear on her pale skin.

Jess swallowed, fighting down the bile rising in her throat, and looked back at her Becker – he was pressing down on Other Jess' wound, his jaw tense and determined. Jess' hands started shaking again as she imagined the roles reversed, if the Becker that had come through the anomaly was bleeding out in front of her. She would be frantic, whether it was her Becker or not.

Not that watching _herself _bleed to death was that much better.

Jess felt a hand slip round her waist. It was Abby. Jess didn't say anything, she just leant into her side and watched silently as the alternate version of her lost even more blood. Dimly she noted that her alternate self was at least dressed for a creature incursion – from what she could see she was dressed in black BDUs similar to what Becker and the soldiers wore. It wasn't an important enough observation for Jess to wonder why.

The medical team arrived then – they'd likely been standing by as close as possible to the Hub from the minute the Code Blue was announced. Jess saw the confusion on their faces as they took in the extra people in the Hub, the duplicates of people standing there and people they thought were dead or missing, but their medical training kicked in at the sight of Other Jess on the ground and Dr Saunders, who was the chief medical officer of the ARC, knelt down immediately.

"We need to get her to medical," he said after one look. "Piers get me a tourniquet."

Becker sat back and let the medical team take over, but the look of horror on his face was going to stay with Jess for quite some time. As for Other Becker, he grabbed hold of Other Jess' hand and didn't let go even as the medical team fixed a better, proper tourniquet around her leg and loaded her onto a stretcher. When they stood up with her and started out of the Hub, he went with them without a backward glance.

Becker stood up slowly, covered in blood, and watched them go. Matt gestured for two of the soldiers to follow them.

There was a couple of moments of silence, before everyone started talking at once.

"I knew this would happen – I said to her to follow us _straight away_ –" That was Other Sarah.

"She'll be okay. She will." Other Abby.

"There's so much blood – oh god." Other Connor.

"Jess, are you okay?" That was normal Abby… but very quietly, so only Jess heard her.

"What the hell happened in your ARC?" Matt

"_How _did you get here? What kind of anomaly is that?" Connor.

"I swear to god I'm going to kill every single last one of those things!" Other Danny.

"She'll pull through – she always does." Other Cutter.

"But Lester –" Other Connor.

"She'll pull through." Other Cutter again.

"Okay, I think we need to talk." Matt.

"Seriously, how did you even _get here_?" Connor again.

"I'm fine," Jess said to Abby. Her eyes were still on Becker. The blood was practically dripping off him – his hands were completely red, the knees and calves of his jeans were saturated with it, and his grey vest was smeared as well. He was still looking at the door the medical team had left through, but when Jess spoke his eyes snapped across to look back at her, as if he'd heard what she'd said. They stared at each other in silence as everyone continued to talk around them, before everyone shut up at the sound of a loud, stern voice from the steps above the ADD.

It was Lester, clearly just arrived for work, and he _did not _look happy.

"Would somebody please tell me what _on earth _is going on?"

_TBC_

There, I hope that made some kind of sense! Everything will become clearer in the next chapter if not.

I feel I should point out right now that I never, ever saw anything other than friendship between Becker and Sarah on the show. I was really shocked when I first started reading Primeval fanfic (back then I was looking for Abby/Connor stories) and saw that they were a fairly popular pairing. I always thought it was an example of fandom's classic everyone-must-be-paired-up. Hell, in series three I would have shipped Becker with Danny before I shipped him with Sarah, lol! So, if you're expecting a Becker/Jess/Sarah triangle, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I do love Sarah though, and she'll be a big part of this story.

Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought of this beginning, so please leave me a review if you have a moment!


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, I am so sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. Really, I shouldn't have posted the first chapter – I thought I'd planned the story enough and was in the right place to write it… obviously not. I really struggled with this chapter, and I only hope the next one will be easier!

Anyway, thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews for chapter one – I was really gratified to see the response to this story. This story is kind of my baby, it's been in my head for so long, so I was really happy that people responded to it so positively. This chapter is quite boring in comparison, all talk talk talk and nothing is really addressed (I'm really selling it, aren't I?) but the action picks up more in the next chapter… here's hoping it's easier to write!

Please let me know what you think!

**Chapter Two**

James Lester was a busy man. Every day was a busy day, every evening and every weekend spent reading reports and responding to emails. The job was important, he was an important man, and he reported to many other important people. All of whom were just waiting for him, or one of his team, to outlive their usefulness or make a mistake.

He was absolutely, positively, _not in the mood_ for this.

He'd expected an anomaly. He'd seen the lights flashing as he'd got out of his car; he'd heard the alarms as he'd come up in the elevator. He'd even expected the hubbub of voices when he entered the Hub. He hadn't expected the first person he saw there to be Nick Cutter.

Nick Cutter, standing in the Hub as if he hadn't been dead for over two years. And behind him, Sarah Page. And next to _her_, a Danny Quinn who'd clearly had recent access to toiletries, unlike the last time he'd seen him. Completing the picture were versions of Connor Temple and Abby Maitland who looked like they'd stepped through an anomaly from three years ago.

Which, quite possibly, they had. There _was_ an anomaly, locked, shimmering in the air by the wall. In front of the anomaly stood Becker, wearing civilian clothing and covered in blood. There was more blood on the floor, but none of the present company seemed to be bleeding. A quick glance at the team – his team – who were gathered around the ADD and staring at the _other_ team, ascertained for Lester that they were obviously unharmed. Everyone was talking at once, hardly any of them to each other.

It took Lester a couple of seconds to take all of this in, and only a microsecond more to decide that he was _not_ going to enjoy today.

"Would somebody please tell me _what on earth_ is going on?" he demanded.

Gratifyingly, everyone stopped talking immediately, and they all turned to look at him. Lester didn't have much time to be grateful for this, as all of the strange new team - or old team, whichever they were - were suddenly... grinning at him.

"Lester!" Several of them exclaimed. They all started walking towards him, and though Lester stood his ground he could only hope they would stop before climbing the steps up to him. The other Temple was grinning like a fool. "It's Lester!" He said pointlessly to Cutter.

"I can see that Connor," Cutter said, but he was grinning stupidly too. He turned his stupid grin on Lester. "Good to see you Lester."

Lester frowned slightly. "Yes..." he said uncertainly. He glanced round at the rest of the… _others_… and saw that the stupid grins seemed to be endemic. He wasn't used to people looking that pleased to see him, so he decided to ignore it and focus on the fact that no one had answered his original question. Clearly he needed to be more explicit.

"When are you from?"

"Now," said the Other Connor, still grinning.

Lester looked over at the normal Connor - he wasn't grinning like his counterpart, but Lester recognised the look of excitement on his face... something _scientific_ was happening. Lester hated that look.

"You're never gonna believe this," he said.

Lester raised an eyebrow. "I doubt that," he said drily. _Disbelief_ wasn't something he believed in anymore.

"He wasn't in the last one," Dr Page suddenly said cryptically. She was talking to the Other Connor.

The Other Connor just shrugged. "They're all different, every single one of them," he told her.

"The other one wasn't, not really," said Quinn.

"Well clearly this one is," said Cutter.

Lester could feel a headache coming on already, so he turned to the one person in the room he thought might actually give him a straight answer.

"Jess, what is going on?"

Jess was standing to his left, facing the anomaly and the other team, and Abby was standing next to her, with her arm around her, he noticed suddenly. Jess had been staring away from him – at Becker, actually, who was staring right back at her. Lester had no time for the soap opera that was the team these days, so he just gave her a stern look as she looked round at him.

Jess pulled away from Abby and stood up a little straighter.

"The anomaly opened about seven minutes ago," she said, her voice shaking only very slightly. "This team came through – they say they're from an alternate reality."

"We _are _from an alternate reality," the Other Connor said immediately, looking indignant.

Lester held up a hand to silence him, and kept his eyes on Jess. "Why are they here?" He asked her.

"Their ARC was overrun by future predators," she said. "They came through to escape."

Lester lowered his hand slowly. Jess was looking back at him calmly, but he noticed now how tightly her arms were folded across her chest, and how tense the set of her jaw was. _Future predators_. Lester felt a twinge in his side which he knew was entirely psychosomatic and looked away, back at the anomaly and the other team. The first thing he saw when he looked this time was a dead future predator, lying on the ground with about a dozen bullet wounds in its chest.

Looking away from that only allowed him to focus on the blood on the floor, and all over Becker. Lester swallowed and then looked back at Jess.

"Whose blood is that?"

Jess swallowed before answering. "It's… the other version of me," she said quietly. "She has a bad wound in her leg. Dr Saunders took her to medical – the other version of Becker went with her."

Well, that explained why their own Becker was standing like a gormless idiot in a puddle of blood. Lester pursed his lips and looked back at the other team again – their grins were gone, replaced by worry, presumably for their version of Jess. Lester tightened his grip on his briefcase and took a step back.

"Perhaps we should speak in my office," he said.

XXXX

Connor's head was reeling. He wasn't sure whether he should be excited or not… the other team that had come through were clearly in a lot of trouble, and their Jess was… well, let's just say that was a sight that was going to haunt him for a while.

But… it was _an alternate reality_. It was incredible. His life had had a pretty scifi feel to it for a long time now, but this was the closest he'd ever felt to being in a _Star Trek_ episode, and _that_ was pretty damn cool. Not to mention that Danny wasn't missing and Sarah was alive in this other reality… as well as Cutter. Cutter was also alive, and here right now. Connor missed all of the friends he'd lost, but losing Cutter had been something different. Cutter had been more than a friend – he'd been a guide and a mentor, and Connor missed him every day in everything he did. And suddenly, here he was.

Seriously. This was incredible.

He studied his other self as they all filed up the stairs and into Lester's office. It was like looking at himself from a couple of years ago. In fact, when he'd seen him and Danny come through the anomaly there'd been a second when he thought he _was _from the past… but he would have remembered it, right? So clearly not.

The same was true of the other Abby – with her short hair she looked just like when he'd first met her, when he'd first fallen for her… he decided then and there that he preferred her with longer hair. A glance at his Abby told Connor that she was more weirded out than excited by what was happening, but even that couldn't dampen his spirits. This was going to be so much fun, finding out the differences between their realities. Like, where was Matt? Why were they all so happy to see Lester? Why hadn't he grown out his hair?

The questions were endless.

They ended up standing on opposite sides of Lester's office – their team on one, the other team on the other. Lester gave Becker a glare before he could step over the threshold and track blood into his office, so he lurked in the doorway. He was looking pretty shaken still – he did have a lot of blood on him.

"Alright, let's start at the beginning," Lester said once they were all inside. He sat down behind his desk and leant back in his chair. "Why are you here?"

He was addressing the question to Cutter, clearly assuming that he was the other team's leader. It certainly seemed he was, the way the rest of them were all waiting patiently for him to answer.

"As JP told you, our ARC was overrun by future predators," Cutter said calmly.

Connor glanced at Jess to see her reaction to being called 'JP' – as nicknames went he thought it was pretty lame, but it seemed to have stuck in this alternate reality. She caught his eye when he looked over and he saw that she also looked pretty shaken; he gave her a small smile and then looked back at Cutter, who was explaining what had happened to them to Lester.

"An anomaly opened in the ARC, and they started coming through before we could lock it," he was saying. "There were too many of them – we initiated lockdown, to stop them getting out, but it meant we were trapped in with them. We had to open the anomaly and come through to get away." He shrugged and gave Lester the wry smile that Connor remembered so well. "Don't worry, we won't be here long," he said. "We've got just under 48 hours to get back before they initiate Plan Delta."

"What's Plan Delta?" Asked Lester.

"Delta as in D. For destruct," said Cutter. He took in Lester's blank look and seemed a little surprised. "You don't have a Plan Delta?"

"You mean a self-destruct?" Said Lester.

"Not exactly – if lockdown is initiated, those outside wait 48 hours and then destroy the contaminated area, unless signalled from the inside to delay or go earlier," explained Cutter.

The Other Connor leant forward around Cutter, looking at Lester eagerly. "Do _you_ have a self-destruct?" He asked. He looked over at Connor as he spoke, and he smiled a little smugly at his other self.

"Yeah," he said.

The other him grinned. "That's so cool. Has it ever been used?"

Cutter rolled his eyes. "Connor…"

Connor remembered that tone as well, and his smile faded a bit as a wave of grief for his own Cutter washed over him. Maybe seeing this alternate version wasn't going to be as cool as he'd first thought.

The Other Connor was looking at Cutter indignantly. "What? It would explain why their ARC is so shiny and new," he said, sounding defensive.

That got Connor's attention. "Your ARC is different?" He asked.

"Yes," answered Cutter. "Well… it's definitely the same building, but the layout's a bit different and – as Connor says – it's not as… shiny."

The Other Connor leant round Cutter again. "So you've never used the self-destruct?" He asked Connor.

"No," said Connor. "We almost did once." He suppressed a shudder at the thought of those bugs, and focused on his other self's excited expression. He was starting to find it all cool again, despite his conflicted feelings over seeing Cutter.

He shifted awkwardly from foot to foot before speaking again. "So how did you get here?" He asked. "You say you just opened up the anomaly? You're saying you have a device that opens up anomalies to other… realities?"

The Other Connor blinked. "Don't you?"

"I wish!" Connor scoffed. "Where did you get it?"

"I made it," Other Connor said.

"_What_? How?!" Connor demanded. "How does it work? What powers it? Do the anomalies behave differently to usual anomalies? Have you been to an alternate reality before?"

"_Temple_," Lester practically growled. Connor looked at him and saw he was pinching the bridge of his nose, which he'd come to learn meant he was about a minute away from making someone work unpaid overtime.

"Let me ask the questions, or we'll be here all day," Lester said. He glared at Connor, who promptly shut his mouth.

Lester turned back to Cutter, who looked quite amused. "What I want to know is – how stable is that anomaly?" He asked. "Will it shut down unexpectedly and leave you stranded here?"

"Or reopen and let more predators through?" Added Matt.

"It's stable," the Other Connor said firmly. "It won't close until the machine is switched off. The only thing that could close it is me shutting it down or… well, I guess if the predators messed around with it on the other side… but it's in a protective case, and I don't think they can get to it. But it won't unlock by itself." He paused, and then added a dismissive: "don't worry".

Lester fixed him with a look that wasn't quite a glare for a long moment. "Alright," he said. "So what exactly do you want from us?" He asked Cutter.

"Nothing," said Cutter immediately. "Look, we just need a chance to regroup, come up with a plan and then go back through and find a way to clear the ARC. We need to at least try, before they resort to Plan Delta."

"We can help," said Connor. There was a silence as everyone looked at him, and he frowned. "Well, we… I mean we can. Can't we?"

There was silence as everyone just kept looking at him, until back up came from an unlikely source.

"We can," Becker said from the doorway. Connor looked at him and winced – it really was quite a lot of blood. Seriously, it was pretty disturbing. It didn't seem to bother him that much though – he was staring Lester down across the room, which was a little surprising given how much of a good soldier he usually was.

Lester looked away first, back at Cutter and all the others. "You should all report to the medical wing and get checked over, and then we'll discuss this further," he said.

Cutter nodded.

"We need to check on JP anyway," said the Other Sarah.

Lester stood up. "Yes. Speaking of which, Captain Becker, I suggest you go and change your clothes."

Becker walked away without a word, leaving a few bloody footprints behind him. Connor looked sideways at Jess – she was staring at the footprints, and Connor was once again reminded of how weird it must be to watch yourself bleed out like that. He felt like he should say something to her, but to be honest he couldn't really think of anything that would be appropriate, and anyway she was leaving the office with everyone else.

Connor walked out as well but waited beside the doorway for his other self: he didn't seem surprised to see him there, and came straight over.

"You're going to need to tell me everything about the alternate realities you've been too – and the device," Connor said straight away.

The Other Connor looked thoughtful. "I'm really surprised you don't have one – the other reality we went to did," he said.

"Really?" Connor said. He grinned. "This is amazing. It's like something out of _Mirror Mirror_."

"Shouldn't one of us have a goatee?" Said the Other Connor, grinning as well. Connor laughed.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up with the level of geekery now that there are two of you." It was Abby – she'd just come out of the office and had sidled up next to them while they'd been talking. Connor's grin widened as he looked at her.

"Twice the fun…" He said with a wink.

She shook her head but she was smiling as she did so, and she stepped a little closer as she turned to look the other him over.

"Hmm, I kind of miss your short hair…" she said after a moment. "You know, now that I see it again."

Connor grinned. "Yeah? I was thinking that I like your hair as it is now." He reached out and tugged the ends affectionately, and she smiled.

"Well lucky for you, so do I," she said, leaning into his side. She gave him a searching look. "You okay?"

"Are you kidding? This is amazing!" Connor said, grinning widely again. It quickly faded. "Well, except for Jess."

Abby's face turned serious as well, and she reached down for his hand. "Yeah. We should go see if she's okay."

Suddenly she frowned, and when Connor followed her gaze he saw why – the other him was staring at the two of them with shock all over his face.

"What's wrong?" Connor asked him.

The other him blinked and coughed. "Nothing," he said quickly. And then without another word he stepped round them and hurried after the others, who had already left the Hub.

Connor and Abby frowned after him, exchanged a confused look, and then followed.

TBC

(Hopefully more quickly this time!)


	3. Chapter 3

Oh my god. I am so sorry for the delay in posting this, but writing this chapter was like _pulling teeth_. Jeez. However, I'm fairly happy with how it's turned out, so hopefully it's worth the wait. A lot of questions get answered… but then a lot of new questions come up as well. I hope you enjoy it, anyway, and I really will try my hardest to update again much sooner.

There is a LOT of talking in this!

**Chapter Three**

The group was pretty silent as they made their way down to medical – Matt walked ahead of the Others, who were quiet and looking worried. Connor and Abby brought up the rear with Jess – neither of them seemed to feel like talking, and Jess wasn't about to strike up conversation.

She couldn't shake the image of Becker standing there in the Hub, covered in blood. _Her _blood. He'd looked shell-shocked. It was a feeling she could understand – seeing herself bleeding out like that had been a horrible experience, but funnily enough she could only imagine that it would have been worse if their roles had been reversed – if it had been the Other _Becker _that had come through grievously injured, she would have been frantic…. a lot like Becker – both of the Beckers – had been about her Other self. Jess tried not to read too much into it – after all, there were more important things to focus on right now than trying to puzzle out Becker's feelings for her.

There were _always _more important things.

When they all finally trooped into medical, it was to find the main room deserted except for the Other Becker, who was standing next to the double doors that Jess knew led to the emergency surgery rooms, and his two guards who were standing by the windows and giving him a wide berth. Matt nodded at them to dismiss them as they all entered, and they looked relieved to be able to leave. Jess guessed that it must be pretty weird to be asked to guard an alternate version of your commanding officer.

"How is she, Becker?" A couple of the Others asked as they entered.

"_Where _is she?" The Other Cutter asked, obviously noting that Other Becker was alone.

Other Becker barely spared them a glance. "They took her in there, and locked the door to keep me out," he said.

There was a short silence as they all digested this.

"I'm sure she's okay," the Other Danny said gruffly. "They would have said something if she wasn't."

"Why don't you get cleaned up a bit?" Other Cutter suggested. Other Becker didn't have nearly as much blood on him as regular Becker had done, and given that he was in his black uniform what _was _there wasn't really visible. Still, he definitely needed some clean clothes.

"Later," Other Becker said flatly, still staring at the doors. The Others all exchanged glances via which they clearly agreed to leave him alone. They all sat or leant against the empty gurneys, settling in to wait for news.

Jess leant back against a gurney as well, and though she tried not to she couldn't help but keep an eye on the Other Becker. She could completely appreciate why the two guards had been glad to leave the room, because this whole situation was _beyond weird_. It was strange enough talking to the other alternates, but the Other Becker and the Other her were far and away the strangest. Danny, Cutter and Sarah were the alternates of three people who weren't there, so though they were the most _unexpected_ arrivals they were probably the least _weird_ to deal with. The alternate Connor and Abby were so different in appearance to the regular couple that they too were pretty easy to accept – you could almost pretend they were just from the past (and the fact that that was considered _normal _to Jess just went to show how completely bizarre her life had become…).

Having an alternate version of her there was too weird to focus on properly. It was something she couldn't really wrap her head around, and right now she wasn't going to try. She felt guilty for it, but she was a little bit grateful that she didn't need to face her just yet.

Other Becker though… he looked _exactly _like regular Becker. The same hair, the same build, the same uniform and the same way of holding himself – straight backed, arms folded, not moving a muscle. If she didn't know it wasn't the same person, she would have no way of telling. She even recognised the look on his face – a tense, worried frown she'd seen when cataloguing security footage of the 'Bug Incident'.

She ducked her head to hide her blush at the thought, and once again admonished herself for focusing on trivial things. Luckily, Connor chose that moment to provide a distraction.

"Since we're just standing here… maybe we should… talk," he suggested.

It seemed that Other Connor had been waiting for this opportunity. "How did your Lester survive?" He asked immediately.

Jess' head snapped back up to stare at the Others, and she saw that the rest of the team were also gaping at them.

"Lester's _dead_ in your reality?" Abby asked after a moment.

"Yeah," said Other Connor sadly.

"How did he die?" Connor demanded. "_When_ did he die?"

"It was a few years ago," Other Cutter said. "A man called Leek set a future predator loose in the ARC with him and –"

"Wait, that happened here too," Connor interrupted him, frowning. "The mammoth killed it."

The Other Cutter blinked in surprise. "_Mammoth_?"

"You have a mammoth?!" Other Connor said at the same moment.

Connor shrugged. "Well, yeah – the one that came through the anomaly on the M25," he said.

"We sent that straight back through," said Other Connor.

"We weren't able to," Abby explained. "We brought it back to the ARC with us, and Lester set it free when the future predator attacked and it impaled it. It saved his life."

Jess smiled a little at the proud tone in her voice.

"We sent it back," Other Connor repeated mournfully.

There was a moment of loaded silence, as they all pondered over this first difference between their realities.

"I can't believe that in your reality he's been dead all that time," Abby said quietly. "We'd barely been operating a year at that point – it was before Sarah and Danny and Becker even joined the ARC. And way before Jess."

Other Danny was nodding. "Yeah," he said. "We've heard stories though."

"Who took over from Lester?" Connor asked.

"Jenny Lewis," Other Cutter answered. "She was our PR consultant and she took over temporarily but did such a good job they kept her." He gave them all a shrewd look. "I notice that you don't seem to have a Jenny."

"We do," Cutter assured him. "Did. She left the ARC a couple of years ago."

"Left? So she's okay?" Other Cutter asked.

"Yeah, she just quit," Connor said. "So in your reality Jenny's still at the ARC?"

"Yes," Other Cutter said. "She was at a meeting at the ministry today, thank god for small mercies."

Other Danny snorted. "She won't see it like that," he said. Other Cutter quirked an eyebrow at Other Danny but didn't say anything, clearly agreeing with him. Jess had heard from Abby and Connor that Cutter and Jenny had had a kind of something before he'd died, and that his death was one of her main reasons for leaving the ARC. Jess assumed that if the same were the case in this alternate reality, Other Danny was right and she would be very unhappy about being left behind, even if she was safe.

Other Danny turned to look at Connor and Abby. "So what about us?" He asked them. "You say Jenny's left the ARC – what about me, and Sarah and Nick? Have we left as well or… something less fun?"

Abby and Connor glanced at each other and shuffled together a little before answering – Jess doubted it was even a conscious move on their part. She knew how much it hurt them to talk about the friends they'd lost.

"Our version of Cutter died almost three years ago," Abby said. "Our Sarah died as well, a few months later."

The Others' eyes widened, and Jess saw both Other Danny and Other Sarah shift uncomfortably – she couldn't imagine what it would be like to here another version of you was dead. Though, she thought suddenly, it was entirely possible that she _would _know soon. She looked over at Other Becker again – he was still standing vigil by the door, and wasn't even looking at them.

"Danny isn't dead – at least, we hope he isn't," Connor said, picking up the story. "He went through an anomaly after his brother about six months ago and we haven't seen him since."

Other Danny's jaw tightened at the mention of his brother, but he didn't question it. "Right."

Other Cutter cleared his throat awkwardly. "So who's your team leader, if I'm… dead?"

Matt straightened up and spoke for the first time since leaving the Hub. "I am."

All the Others (except Becker) turned to study him. "And who are you, exactly?" Other Cutter asked after a few moments.

"What?" Connor said, sounding as surprised as Jess felt. "You don't have a version of Matt in your reality?"

"Nope," Other Connor said.

"Not at all?" Abby asked.

"Not that I know of," Other Cutter said. "Matt, you said?"

"Matt Anderson." Matt and Other Cutter sized each other up, and Jess was reminded of when Matt first joined the ARC, and he and Becker had been all territorial for the first few weeks.

As if thinking of him had conjured him there, Becker chose that moment to walk into medical. He was blood-free, and had changed into his black uniform. Jess was leaning against the gurney closest to the door, but no one else noticed him – they were too busy watching the staring match between Matt and Cutter.

Jess felt her cheeks going red at just the sight of Becker, and so she looked back as well.

Matt was frowning deeply. "In your reality, what happened to Helen?" He asked eventually. It was an odd question, and not one Jess had been expecting.

Other Cutter's eyebrows went up at the change of subject. "My ex-wife?" Matt nodded, and Other Cutter shrugged. "Let's see… she cloned me, blew up the ARC, came very close to killing me, got arrested and has been in jail for the past two years."

Jess felt movement next to her and looked round to see that Becker had joined her at her gurney, and was leaning back next to her, arms folded across his chest. She caught his eye this time – he gave her a small, grim smile, which she quickly returned before focusing on the conversation again.

Connor was looking startled. "Came close to… did she shoot you?" He demanded.

"Yeah," Other Cutter said with a wince. "I almost died."

"In our reality you did," Connor said quietly. "That's how it happened."

Other Cutter raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah," said Connor. "And she didn't get arrested – she escaped and – oh my god!"

Connor looked round at Matt, who just nodded. "Yeah," he said.

Jess was only confused for a split second before she realised what Matt had clearly figured out before he asked Other Cutter about Other Helen.

"In their reality, Helen didn't mess with convergence and you didn't need to come back from the future!" Connor exclaimed.

"What?" Several of the Others said, looking dumbfounded.

"Wait, you're from the _future_?" Other Cutter asked Matt.

Matt folded his arms. "In this reality, Helen Cutter tampered with the anomalies and caused a cataclysmic event that almost wiped out the human race, and made the planet's surface unliveable," he explained, to a collection of wide eyes and slack jaws from the Others. "I was born about three hundred years from now – my father and I came through an anomaly to this time to try and stop it."

"Did you?" Other Connor asked.

"Eventually."

Abby was looking thoughtful. "So if Helen was arrested after she shot Cutter, does that mean you were never trapped in the Cretaceous?" She asked her Other self.

The Other Abby looked downright shocked. "You were… what?" She said.

"Abby and I were trapped in the Cretaceous for a year," Connor told her.

Other Abby shot a startled look at Other Connor before quickly looking away from him, down at the floor. Other Connor cleared his throat. "No. No, that didn't happen." He glanced at Other Abby, and for a moment Jess could have sworn he looked regretful.

Jess frowned – there was clearly something weird between the Other Connor and Abby. She realised that she hadn't seen them speak to each other or really even look at each other except for just then, and the Other Abby was a lot quieter than the Abby she knew. Jess looked over at Abby and saw that she, too, was watching her Other self with a small frown.

"And so that's why Sarah's still alive…" Connor said to Abby, clearly not noticing anything odd about the Other Connor and Abby's behaviour – or just too excited by the implications of what they'd figured out to pay it much attention.

It was Other Sarah's turn to straighten up. "How did I die in this reality?" She asked steadily. Jess gave her a good look for the first time – her hair was a little shorter than it was in the pictures Jess had seen of her, but she looked very much like the regular Sarah had. From what Jess had heard from Abby, Connor and even Becker, Sarah Page had been very smart and very brave – the fact that she seemed to be taking all this in her stride was an indication that her Other self was too.

"You… it was a rescue mission," Connor said after a moment. "You were looking for us. After we went missing."

He looked away from Other Sarah, down at the floor, and Jess bit her lip. She knew that Connor and Abby both felt very guilty for Sarah's death, even though they weren't really responsible. Becker's guilt over it was even worse – she glanced at Becker and saw that he too was staring at the floor, his jaw clenched.

Abby cleared her throat and continued the story. "We've only heard second hand accounts, but it was a future predator and you were trapped…" Her voice trailed off, either from the pain of talking about it or not knowing what to say. Becker's head came up, and Jess knew that he was going to change the subject.

"Yeah that pretty much covers it," he said shortly.

Everyone turned to look at Becker when he spoke, clearly not having seen him come in, and Jess noticed that Other Becker also looked round, finally. His eyes skipped over Becker and then landed on her. His face remained blank but he ran his eyes over her briefly before turning back to the double doors. His posture changed immediately and Jess knew that he'd seen something. A moment later there was a click of a lock being undone, the door swung open and Dr Saunders walked through into the main room.

"Is she –" Several voices started to ask, but Saunders raised a hand and cut them all off.

"She's okay," he said. "We've managed to stop the bleeding. She's had a transfusion, and she's resting now."

"Is she awake?" Said Other Becker. "Can I see her?"

"She is awake, but she needs to rest," said Saunders firmly.

"_I_ need to see her," said Other Becker, pulling himself up to his full height and glaring down at Dr Saunders who regarded him coolly, unfazed by the not-so-subtle intimidation attempt.

Other Cutter stepped in before Other Becker could say anything else. "For a minute?" He asked Dr Saunders gently. "Please."

Dr Saunders looked at Other Cutter and past him to the other Others in the room, looking at him with varying degrees of pleading expressions, and then back to Other Becker, whose shoulders had slumped slightly. He pursed his lips.

"Alright, for a minute," he said conceded reluctantly. "But no more than that. She lost a lot of blood, and she's very groggy – she needs to rest up."

Other Becker had started through the door as soon as the doctor said 'alright', and Other Cutter followed him immediately. They were followed by Other Danny and Sarah, and Matt hurried after them all, and soon everyone was heading through the double doors, much to Dr Saunders' surprise and consternation.

"Wait – I didn't mean that – you can't all go –" he stuttered as Connor and Abby followed their alternates through. Jess and Becker were the last to follow on, and Jess gave the doctor an apologetic smile as she passed him. He scowled. "I mean it, _one minute_."

Jess and Becker followed the others down a short corridor and into one of the recovery rooms. The Other Jess was lying on the only bed in the room, almost as pale as the white sheets she was tucked up in, though looking better than she had in the control room. Jess could clearly see that her injured leg was heavily bandaged under the thin top sheet, and she'd been changed into a cotton hospital gown. Her hair was down and it was now obvious that it was a lot shorter than Jess' own – it was cut in a short bob that barely reached below her ears.

The alternate team crowded round the foot of the bed while Jess, Becker and the rest stood a little back, trying to give them some privacy but still keeping a close eye on the proceedings. Other Becker had gone straight round the side of the bed and was standing by Other Jess' head, staring down at her with a frown.

Jess stared hard at her alternate self, needing the distraction to stop herself looking at Becker to see his reaction to his Other self's clear worry.

She was awake, but Dr Saunders hadn't been exaggerating by saying she was 'groggy'. Her head was turned away from Other Becker, more towards where Jess stood by the wall, but she wasn't focusing on anything in particular and her eyelids kept drooping. Jess doubted she even knew they'd entered the room.

Other Becker reached down and took her hand – the Other Jess' eyes closed, but Jess saw her hand tighten around Other Becker's.

"JP?" He said softly. "Jess? Can you hear me?"

Other Jess frowned slightly, her eyes still closed, and turned her head so her face was pointing towards the ceiling. Her eyes opened again, her eyelids blinking furiously as she struggled into full consciousness. After a moment they stayed open without the blinking, and Other Becker leant down slightly.

"It's me, Becker," he said. "Remember? Your boyfriend?"

Jess managed to stop herself gasping out loud, but every muscle in her body froze except her eyes, which popped. She heard a couple of gasps – no doubt Connor and Abby – and felt the Becker next to her shift slightly, but she forced herself not to look at him. She continued to stare at the alternate couple in front of her – a Becker and Jess who actually _were _a couple. A _couple_ couple.

_Oh my god._ Jess had no idea how to handle this turn of events. She didn't even know how to feel about it. Embarrassment was her first reaction – she could feel everyone looking at her, could feel how red her cheeks were, could only imagine what Becker was thinking. She was surprised as well, and curious – how had it happened in that reality and not this one? What did Other Jess have that she didn't? And that led to another feeling – jealousy.

The Other Jess turned her head to look at Other Becker, who still had concern writ all over his face. There was a moment of silence, and then:

"Don't make me hurt you," she said in a raspy voice.

Jess frowned. It wasn't exactly what she'd expected her alternate self's first words to be.

Other Becker , though, grinned; it was such a sudden change in expression that Jess found herself blinking almost as much as her alternate self had just done. "Worth a try," he said to Other Jess, still grinning. He turned to face the rest of his team, the grin widening even further. "She's fine."

Other Sarah stepped forward, rolling her eyes at him. "Get out of the way you creep," she said, literally shoving Other Becker out of her way. He just winked at her and stepped back, looking perfectly cheerful. In fact, he looked more cheerful than Jess had ever seen regular Becker look. And she had certainly never seen regular Becker _wink_.

She had literally no clue what was going on. Were they together? Other Jess' reply had clearly implied that they weren't, and then he'd said _worth a try_… as if he'd been joking. He'd been _joking. _But why on earth would Becker joke about something like _that_? Come to think of it, why on earth would _Becker _even make any kind of a joke at such a serious moment? He wouldn't.

It seemed that Jess had finally discovered a way in which Other Becker was different to the regular one.

She shook herself and focused on Other Sarah – she had taken hold of Other Jess' now free hand and was smiling down at her. "Thank god you're alright. How do you feel?"

Other Jess shrugged. "A bit tired, but apart from that I'm – woah." She had started to sit up, but only got as far as propping herself up on an elbow before she fell back against her pillows.

Dr Saunders immediately stepped forward. "Don't try and sit up, don't move at all," he ordered her. "You lost a lot of blood."

Other Jess stared at the doctor for a moment before looking round at Other Becker again – he'd stepped forward next to Other Sarah when Other Jess had tried to sit up, and was looking serious again.

"It got my leg," Other Jess said.

"Yeah," Other Becker confirmed. "Do you remember anything else?"

Other Jess frowned. "I remember the anomaly and… and there were two of you."

Other Becker's grin reappeared. "Fantasy come true, huh?" He quipped.

Jess went red again. Immediately.

Other Sarah let out a sort of disgusted groan at Other Becker's words, but Other Jess just looked away from him, scanning the crowd around her bed. Her team all smiled at her, and she smiled back, but her eyes didn't stop until they reached Jess… and suddenly she knew what it felt like to lock eyes with an alternate version of herself.

"Hi," said Other Jess after a long moment.

Jess managed a small smile. "Hi."

Dr Saunders tapped his watch impatiently. "Okay, that's enough," he declared. "Everybody out. And I mean everybody." He had his eyes on Other Becker, and he was scowling.

Other Becker just held up his hands as if in surrender, still smiling. Everyone started filing out of the room – first Matt, Abby and Connor, and then the alternates. Jess lingered, still watching her Other self interacting with Other Sarah and Other Becker.

Other Sarah squeezed Other Jess' hand. "We'll be back soon," she said with a smile. She turned away and followed the rest out of the door. Jess started to follow as well, Becker right behind her.

Other Becker gave Other Jess a mock serious look. "Rest up, Parker," he said sternly, though his small smile kind of ruined the effect. "I need you back on your feet as soon as possible."

Other Jess smiled. "Yes sir," she said, raising her hand in a very weak salute.

Other Becker chuckled. "And work on that salute, Lieutenant."

Jess froze again, mid-step, and she turned back to the bed with her mouth open. Next to her, Becker also came to a sudden stop, and summed up her thoughts exactly.

"Wait, _what_?!"

TBC


End file.
